In this article, you will learn everything about Ethereum Merge and why it’s revolutionary — backed up by facts and data. In addition to that, you’ll also get answers to some of your burning questions about the Merge.

What is Ethereum Merge?

Since the launch of Ethereum in 2015, the vision has always been to become a scalable, sustainable, and secured blockchain network. Running on the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus model, the Ethereum network depended on miners for transaction validation, which is not energy efficient and consumes lots of power.

While operating on the PoW model, Ethereum became the second-largest blockchain globally and the biggest decentralized ecosystem. Hosting around 2,948 DApps with 57.59k active users. But in a bid to actualize its vision of becoming a sustainable and scalable network, the PoW model has its vulnerabilities and drawbacks. Hence, the need for The Merge.

Ethereum Merge, otherwise known as The Merge, is simply the merger of Ethereum and Beacon Chain. And the reason for the merger is to transition Ethereum from the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus model to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model.

Imagine Ethereum is an aircraft that isn’t flying high due to a stale engine. And Beacon Chain, a newly built turbo aircraft engine made of steel. By using Beacon Chain on Ethereum, it will run more efficiently and fly steadily. That’s what The Merge is about.

Beacon Chain introduces the proof-of-stake model to Ethereum, which utilizes staking as a transaction validation model. Investors can become validators by staking ETH and getting yields in return.

Why Merge Now

Switching to proof of stake has become more urgent for us because of how crypto and Ethereum have grown over the last year,” said Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum. Aside from the fact that the proof-of-work consensus is not scalable and sustainable, it is also not energy efficient. It consumes an enormous amount of energy.

The chart above accurately represents the energy consumption difference between Bitcoin, proof-of-work, and proof-of-stake. Bitcoin uses 1,135,000 Wh/tx, while Ethereum’s PoW uses 84,000 Wh/tx, and Ethereum’s PoS will use 35 Wh/tx. This means that PoS is ~2000x more energy efficient, resulting in at least a 99.95% reduction in total energy use. Incredible!

The PoS consensus is needed to activate the next phase of Ethereum’s growth. It will give them the leverage to scale faster by processing more transactions in a minute. According to Vitalik Buterin’s estimates of post-merge, sharded Ethereum will to a 6400x increase in throughput, leading to about 25,000–100,000 transactions per second.

First, the PoS consensus is energy efficient. Second, it is scalable and sustainable. Then from the investor’s angle, it will allow more people to become transaction validators by staking their ETH and getting rewards. Hence, the urgent need for the transition from PoW to PoS consensus.

How to Stake Your ETH

At the time of writing, there are 339,723 validators with about 11.4 million ETH staked already. Instead of leaving your ETH to sit dormant in your wallet, you can put it to work and get yields for staking it. Here are a few ways you can stake your ETH.

1. Solo Staking on Beacon Chain

   Solo Staking on Ethereum’s Beacon Chain is the primary way to stake your ETH. By staking your ETH on Beacon Chain, you’ll become a transaction validator and earn continuous rewards for your effort. It is worth noting that staking is not just about the rewards. You’re contributing to the overall security of the network. However, there are some not-so-average requirements of solo staking on Beacon Chain. You need to have hardware that can run 24/7, an ultra-fast internet connection, technical ability and a whopping 32 Ether. More on the requirements here.

2. ETH Staking on Rocket Pool

   Rocket Pool is a decentralized protocol that facilitates Ethereum staking. With Rocket Pool, anyone can become a validator stake their Ethereum for a 4.03% to 13.66% APR. It has a lesser requirement than Solo Staking on Beacon Chain and a lower barrier of entry.

   On Rocket Pool, you can stake your Ether using two methods. First, you can participate in Ethereum staking by becoming a Nood Operator. You’ll need hardware with 100% uptime and a minimum of 17.6 ETH to participate. For participating, you’ll earn rewards for helping passive stakers validate their transactions.

   On the other hand, you can stake your ETH using their staking pool. All you need to do is deposit as little as 0.01 ETH and receive the rETH liquid staking token. It’s a great way for non-technical people to stake their ETH.

3. Centralized Exchanges

   The last way to participate in ETH staking is through centralized exchanges. Exchanges like CoinBase, Binance and Kraken offer staking options for ETH. If you don’t have the minimum ETH requirements for Beacon Chain and Rocket Pool, centralized exchanges are a good place to start.

   “I would love to have an ecosystem that has lots of good crazy and bad crazy “Bad crazy is when there’s just huge amounts of money being drained and all it’s doing is subsidizing the hacker industry. Good crazy is when there’s tech work and research and development and public goods coming out of the other end. So there’s this battle. And we have to be intentional, and make sure more of the right things happen.” — Vitalik Buterin

   Ethereum Merge will revolutionize blockchain as we used to know it. The era of proof-of-stake will accelerate Ethereum’s growth, efficiency, and scalability. That era, my fren, is worth the hype.

   WAGMI